KATOWICE, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's sports authorities voiced their support for newly elected World Anti-Doping Agency vice president Yang Yang.
It was the first time that a Chinese was elected into the leadership of the 20-year-old WADA when the election was held in the Polish city Thursday on the last day of the fifth World Conference on Doping in Sport.
Li Yingchuan, vice director of China's State General Administration of Sport said Yang, a former International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, will be capable of dealing with her new job.
"Yang was an excellent athlete and is experienced in working in international organizations. Although she may face big challenges in this difficult and complicated time, China's State General Administration of Sport will give our active support to her," said Li, who is also a member of WADA Foundation Board.
Li said China's support for Yang, China's first ever Winter Olympic champion in short-track speedskating, is in line with the country's long-standing stance in the fight against doping.
"Anti-doping is an endless fight and China has taken and will keep a zero-tolerance attitude towards it," said Li.
"We very much agreed with what IOC president Thomas Bach had said about the governments taking more responsibilities in the fight against doping, " Li said. "And we already took steps in that area."
Bach pointed in a speech on Tuesday at the opening of Conference the the urgent need to focus much more on the athletes' entourage because past experience showed that the athlete "is supported and sometimes even driven to or forced into doping..."
Bach admitted that "when it comes to sanctioning the entourage, the power of sports organizations is extremely limited."
He therefore called for "the governments to look for effective ways within their respective national legal systems to severely punish people who are part of the entourage."
China's vice sport minister said what Bach encouraged is just what China has been working on for years.
China has issued regulations and laws to punish athletes' support personnel, whether they be coaches, doctors or even administrative staff in local sport bureaus, through bans, fines and executive punishments.
"And now we are in the process drafting a judicial interpretation on the application of criminal law in handling cases related to doping," said Li. "This will make China just a few places where doping cases could be criminalized."
